Monday, November 21, 2011

A while back, the names of the new ECPN committee officers were announced on the blog. Now, we thought you might like to know a little more about them:

Molly Gleeson, Chair

Molly Gleeson completed her BA in Art Conservation from the University of Delaware in 2002 and her MA from the UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials in 2008. She is now living and working in San Diego, CA, devoting part of her time to assist on a joint research project between UCLA and the Getty Conservation Institute, focused on Native California featherwork. In addition to her recent election to the ECPN committee, she also serves as a Member-at-Large on the board of the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC).

Eliza Spaulding (Vice Chair)

Eliza Spaulding is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Paper Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2010, she graduated from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with an Advanced Certificate in Conservation and a Master's Degree in Art History. In addition to working with ECPN, she also is involved in establishing the Philadelphia Area Conservation Association, a regional network for preservation and conservation professionals in the greater Philadelphia area.

Anisha Gupta, co-Outreach Coordinator

Anisha is an undergraduate senior majoring in Art History and Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has worked at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art as a conservation intern and currently works at the Oak Street Library Facility doing book and paper conservation. She graduates in May 2012 and hopes to have a conservation internship for a year and then apply to graduate school.

Megan Salazar-Walsh (co-Outreach Coordinator)

Megan was born and grew up in southern Spain. In 2007 she received a BA in Art History from Whitman College.She interned with several conservators in private practice in Seattle, WA and in Seville, Spain. She also volunteered at the Seattle Art Museum, working with the conservation department on objects, paintings and outdoor sculpture. Last summer she was an intern at the Shelburne Museum, VT. She is currently a first year student at Buffalo State College.

Amy Brost, Communications Coordinator

Amy is a pre-program intern at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary (paper), Wilson Conservation, LLC (objects) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (photographs) as well as a chemistry student at New York City College of Technology.Over the summer, she worked for the Research Foundation at CUNY, assisting chemistry faculty with research pertaining to the development of solid oxide fuel cells.She came to conservation after 10 years working in advertising and communications.She has a BA in Art History and a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Carrie Roberts (Professional Education and Training)

Carrie is a recent graduate of the Winterthur / University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, where she majored in objects conservation with a preventive minor. Her areas of interest include the conservation of stone and archaeological materials, and the impact of environments on the stability of art objects. She has interned at the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, English Heritage, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Kaman-Kalehoyuk archaeological excavation in Turkey. She currently works as a Samuel H. Kress Conservation Fellow at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.

Amber Kerr-Allison, who has been serving as co-Professional Education & Training, is a Paintings Conservator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Lunder Conservation Center. She will complete her ECPN term in December. She has made a great contribution to growing ECPN over the past four years.The committee is deeply grateful for her sustained commitment to ECPN.

We are holding our committee calls on the third Monday of each month at 1 pm ET.The call-in information is on the ECPN page of the AIC website.Any member of ECPN is welcome to join those calls.Alternatively, keep up with our activities through the minutes from our calls that are posted to the blog each month, and feel free to reach out to any of us with your ideas and feedback.

1. Basecamp orientation and training (Rachael) – Rachael conducted training on Basecamp and did an overview of the basic features.

a. General notes – Everyone controls their own username and password, not Ryan or Rachael. In order to change this information or your email address, go to account information settings. If you use Basecamp for projects outside of ECPN, you should have only one login username and password but have access to all your different groups through one account.

b. Uploading Files — You can upload different versions of the same file to Basecamp. These versions will appear as different files and be nested on top of each other. You can email people to alert them that you have uploaded a file. Other people can edit files and their versions will appear as separate versions of the file. If more than one person is editing a file, both of their versions will appear as two separate documents.

c. Writeboards —This is a useful tool when a project is in its early stages and formatting is not crucial. The Writeboard can be used to compare different versions of an idea and keep it all in one place. More than one person can edit the Writeboard simultaneously. Rachael suggested that this was a good place to put the meeting minutes so anyone can go in and add to the minutes.

d. Messages —A good place to brainstorm ideas and also archive ideas so people within ECPN in later years can come back and see our ideas. Files can also be attached to the message. These files can be found in the file list under that particular project. Important note: the author of the message can include anyone on the message, but if other people want to be added onto the thread later, only the author can add more people to the recipient list.

e. Calendars —Basecamp calendar can be synced with iCalendar (Apple calendars). Two different types of things can be created on the calendar: events and milestones. An event is of short-duration and had a set beginning and end time. Our monthly conference calls would be examples of events. A milestone is a bigger project that requires different tasks leading up to the milestone that need to be accomplished. A milestone can be assigned to the whole group or just one person; multiple people cannot be assigned with a milestone.

f. To-Dos—To-Do lists can be created to organize projects. A full description can be given for what the to-list pertains to. To-Dos can be added to milestones. One can comment on a To-Do list and have multiple To-Do lists going at once.

2. Minutes – 13 October 2011 meeting minutes were approved (Molly)—Molly suggested that we start putting the agenda on the Writeboard for everyone to look over before the next meeting.

3. Student Research Database (Carrie and Amber)—Carrie and Amber have been working on creating an online platform for student work to be accessed. Right now, they are trying to gauge interest in this project from graduate schools. They are still discussing whether it will be a database or website. When talking to contacts at the graduate schools, some issues were raised, such as how it would be supported financially and who would contribute the up-front costs. In order to gauge interest, they have put together a questionnaire of what they would like to ask grad school programs. This document has been uploaded to Basecamp. They plan that the responses to this survey will inform a budget and a second proposal. Reaching out to Abby Aldrich was also discussed because she expressed interest in getting involved. She can help with the continuation of the project when Amber steps down.

4. Allied Professionals List (Eliza)—The list of Allied Professionals is being updated and expanded and is currently on Basecamp. The pre-existing list on AIC was checked and updated. Carrie and Amber are getting together more organizations we can call our allies and those have been added to the Writeboard. Eliza said some doubts had come up about some of the organizations. She will send out an email with further details.

5. Outreach Coordinators’ Questions (Anisha)—Anisha asked about how we would like to proceed with forum calls. Molly suggested putting ideas about the subject of future forum calls on Basecamp. Anisha also asked about moving to the AIC blog. Ryan said we can move whenever we want to. ECPN will get authors’ privileges and will post on the blog with the tag “Emerging Conservator.” When we want to move is something that the group needs to discuss more. When we decide when to move, Rachael Perkins Arenstein can give us all a tutorial about using the new blog. In general, Ryan does not need to be informed of blog ideas but it may be a good idea to run administrative issues by him. Stephanie would like to be cc’d on emails about blog ideas and posts.

6. Email Blasts (Molly)—Ryan said it would not be wise to do email blasts too frequently so people are not annoyed by too many emails. He can do email blasts before forum calls or if we would like to really advertise a particular initiative. For most other things, continue advertising through the blog or Facebook page.

The next meeting was confirmed to be on Monday, November 21 at 1pm EST.

Monday, November 14, 2011

If you completed your conservation training 3 years ago (or more), you may now be eligible to apply for Professional Associate (PA) status. Being a PA comes with many benefits, including approval for listing in the online guide Find a Conservator and eligibility to apply for Individual Professional Development Scholarships, which help defray costs for professional development activities, including attending workshops, courses and conferences (excluding the AIC annual meeting).

The next application deadline is January 1. The application involves submitting examples of your work, including condition and treatment reports, lab reports and research papers, and obtaining 3 sponsors, such as current or former supervisors who are AIC members with PA or Fellow status.

Are you wondering if you are eligible to apply or do you have questions about the application process? You can find more information about the necessary qualifications and the application form here.

Please give us your feedback! We’d like to know what you think about PA status, and if you have recently qualified as a PA, we’d love to hear from you about what the process was like. Also, if you have any questions that we might be able to help answer, please let us know!Stay tuned to the blog and our facebook page for more information.

1. Committee Introductions – each person provided a brief introduction.Everyone should send a couple of sentences to Amy for a “meet the committee” blog post.

2. Brief Committee Overview (Ryan) – started about 4 years ago as part of a larger trend seen in other associations such as AAM, which has a young professionals group.Ruth & Ryan saw a need, from a staff perspective, to engage with students and emerging conservators in a structured way, within AIC.Through trial and error, found a way to engage the audience for the committee (including AIC’s first blog) using social media.Gradually built up and established structure and roles.The mentoring program and annual meeting activities developed into key initiatives, and we have a robust group spanning the “emerging” career spectrum, and many new exciting initiatives.The conference calls started out as more program than committee business, but now they have turned into committee business, even though anyone is welcome to call in.Business Meeting at the annual meeting is for committee business, but programs have been added, such as the Portfolio Session.More growth is anticipated, and this is an exciting time for the committee.

3. Committee Process (Ruth) – Post-graduates and students are a critical group for AIC. Important for Ryan and Ruth to be informed of the group’s activities, to identify synergies within AIC.Use Ryan and Ruth as point of contact and liaisons to other AIC staff. Stephanie, as Board liaison, works on our behalf with the Board.The Board will be approving and providing directives to ECPN, and they appreciate ECPN and what we’ve accomplished.Committee has diversified significantly since the earliest days.Goal to have the committee serve everyone in the “emerging” conservator category, with equal emphasis.Board meets three times per year (IAG meeting will occur in November in conjunction with Board meeting).Molly’s role as Chair includes reporting about ECPN to the AIC Board.

4. Communications Overview (Amy) – Her role involves print media, such as the 2011 AIC meeting poster and flier, and ANAGPIC flier, writing and soliciting blog content, writing at times for AIC News, being involved with the Publications Committee and Wikis as an ECPN representative.As Wikis develop, will act as liaison for specialty groups looking to leverage help from emerging conservators to populate Wikis.Act as ECPN secretary (taking and posting meeting minutes).

5. Professional Education and Training Overview (Amber) – Communicating to the different universities involved with training in conservation, and working with ETC to look at their website and generate ideas, contributions for it (working with Stephanie).Move forward on a student research repository initiative and develop liaison positions for each of the conservation training programs.Surveyed the ECPN members at the beginning, and a follow-up two years ago to see what people’s interests were and how ECPN could serve them.The Portfolio Session was a new initiative this year, and this program involved coordinating participation by the programs and coordinating the on-site execution.This initiative was very successful and it can grow in new directions, perhaps helping to connect emerging conservators to job opportunities.

6. Student Research Repository (Carrie) – Exploring how to meet the needs of the students and training programs.At the 2011 AIC meeting, discussed the concerns and interests of students and training program faculty and staff.Questionnaire being developed to see how the initiative could be supported and populated with research content.The repository will be an ECPN/AIC joint initiative, with cooperation from the educational institutions.

7. Poster Abstract (Carrie) – For AIC 2012 meeting. Collecting case studies.May have an interactive component, to showcase emerging conservators’ blogs, etc.Awaiting acceptance notification.Carrie is reaching out to people to solicit content for case studies.Abstract is general, overarching, so some flexibility in the selection of case studies.If abstract is accepted, Amy, Anisha, and Megan to work on poster, and pick up Comments from Facebook and Blog with ideas for case studies.

8. Chair and Vice-Chair Overview (Molly and Eliza) – Began drafting documents describing roles (Vice-Chair is a new position).Share organizational roles and project/team leadership.Mentoring program, annual meeting organization, Angels Project, allied professionals lists, student research repository are all projects they’ll be directly involved in.Molly’s Chair duties involve making reports to the Board will be hers solely, but other duties can be shared with Eliza working as second-in-command.

9. Committee Communication (Stephanie) – Stephanie mentioned that communication between committee members and the Chair and Vice-Chair should be enhanced – the Chair and Vice-Chair need to be aware of what everyone is working on, and any critical developments.The creation of the Vice-Chair position helps relieve the burden on the Chair, and also gives ECPN a more formal structure like the other AIC committees.This structure provides for continuity by having the Vice-Chair ultimately move into the Chair position.

10. Agenda Development (Molly) – standing items include an update from each officer, but items can be added by emailing the Chair before the meeting.

11. Basecamp for ECPN (Amy & Ryan) – Amy suggested ECPN use Basecamp to organize committee documents and discussions, and has experience using it through the Publications Committee.Ryan asked Rachael Perkins Arenstein about ECPN using Basecamp, and the licenses are available.Ryan will follow up with Rachael to obtain licenses for ECPN and arrange for Basecamp training during a future call.

12. Outreach Overview (Anisha & Megan) – Molly will set up a call with Heather, Amy, Ryan, Anisha, and Megan.Pick up any projects Heather was working on.Ryan to set up Anisha & Megan’s blog author privileges and admin status for Facebook.Projects Heather initiated, including a networking toolkit and organizing webinars, will be continued. In the past, selection of topics has been democratic and open to whoever wants to write, with committee agreement.Develop blogging strategies – keep a running list of ideas and then use it to identify potential authors and prioritize topics.Keep momentum by having steady activity on social media.Committee members are encouraged to write, comment, and participate actively on the committee’s social media sites.

13. Terms (Molly) – Terms have been irregular in the past, but now ECPN will bring the terms in line with those used by other committees.The terms will last for a year and turn over at each AIC annual meeting.Amber felt that the Chair position could benefit from being a longer term, because of the nature of the projects the Chair undertakes and leads.

Current terms:

1.Molly-will serve as Chair for approximately 1 year 8 months

2.Eliza, Megan and Anisha-will serve 8 month terms with the option for renewal for a second term. If Eliza chooses to stay on for a second “term,” will then become Chair for one year after Molly steps down.

3.Amy will serve until AIC 2012.

4.Carrie will serve until AIC 2013.

5.Amber will serve until December 2011.

14. Rose (former Chair) joined to indicate that she was available to answer any questions that arise.

15. Anisha will take minutes for 10/31 call, which Amy is unable to attend.The future calls will be on the 3rd Monday of each month, starting in November.The previous month’s minutes (for review prior to approval) and agenda will be sent out on the Friday before each call.

Monday, October 31, 2011

The National Archives and Records Administration Conservation Branch wishes to hire two Conservation Technicians to work on a grant-funded, two-year project to preserve and make available a collection of flood-damaged, largely 19th-20th c Hebraic and Arabic books and documents.

As a member of the project team, the successful candidates will assist with conservation treatments to stabilize and prepare selected books and archival materials for digitization and exhibition, collection housing, packing materials for shipment and other project activities.This position is a term federal appointment. Knowledge of Hebrew and/or Arabic is desirable but not mandatory. The work location is at the modern and well-equipped Archives II building in College Park, MD, a close-in suburb of Washington, DC.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Award is established by the Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS) of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) to honor the career and influence of Jan Merrill-Oldham, distinguished leader, author, and mentor in the field of library and archives preservation.

Over the past three decades Ms. Merrill-Oldham has been instrumental in the development of standards and best practices, writing more than forty publications including co-authoring the Guide to the ANSI/NISO/LBI Library Binding Standard, a document used by almost all libraries and commercial library binders. Ms. Merrill-Oldham has served on key committees within ALCTS, ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the National Information Standards Organization and many others. She has educated and mentored countless preservation librarians and conservators and her support for students and dedication to the field serves as a model to all of us. In September of 2010, Ms. Merrill-Oldham announced her retirement after a long and notable career in library and archives preservation. In December 2010, she was named the recipient of the ALCTS Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes Jan Merrill-Oldham’s wide ranging contributions, deep commitment to the field of library and archives preservation, and her undying support of young professionals by supporting participation in an ALA Annual Conference.

It is important however to encourage new and young preservation librarians and staff to further pursue their professional development. A significant part of that involvement is to attend the ALA Annual Conference to network and learn from their colleagues. Ms. Merrill-Oldham over her career has dedicated herself to mentoring young professionals and it is in recognition of that service that an award that supports professional development and involvement by librarians and para-professionals new to the preservation field be established.

The Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant is awarded by the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section to provide librarians and paraprofessionals new to the preservation field with the opportunity to attend a professional conference and encourages professional development through active participation at the national level. The grant is to be used for airfare, lodging, and registration fees to attend the ALA Annual Conference.

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About the Emerging Conservation Professionals Network

In April 2008, AIC formed the Emerging Leaders Network for AIC members just entering the field of conservation (both conservators and conservation students) for the following purposes:

Create and maintain a forum and network for AIC members who are entering the field of conservation. This includes: undergraduate students, pre-program individuals, graduate students, and conservators with fewer than seven years experience including graduate school or other training.

Assist AIC in enhancing ways to serve our members who are just entering the field of conservation and help members as they make the transition from student to conservation professional.

About the Authors

AIC is the national membership organization supporting conservation professionals in preserving cultural heritage by establishing and upholding professional standards, promoting research and publications, providing educational opportunities, and fostering the exchange of knowledge among conservators, allied professionals, and the public.